Lilian Hernandez Osorio
La Jornada Newspaper
Tuesday, January 13, 2026, p. 11
The general secretary of the Mexican Episcopate Conference (CEM), Héctor Mario Pérez Villarreal, asserted that Mexican society is not defeated in the face of crime and insecurity, but rather “is tired, but willing to organize; hurt, but has hope.”
When announcing the second National Dialogue for Peace, to be held from January 30 to February 1 at the facilities of the Western Institute of Technology and Higher Studies, in Jalisco, he noted that strengthening peace “is not a six-year policy,” but rather everyone’s task.
In this regard, Jorge Atilano González Candia, executive director of the National Dialogue for Peace, pointed out that in Mexico the municipalities that have reduced the crime rate and have kept it low are those that have managed to have a municipal police force that is “clean, trained and articulated. That is the key.”
He explained that academic and CEM studies have documented that eight municipalities that had high crime rates have managed to reduce violence with citizen participation, but above all, because the municipal police act without corruption.
“The key is the municipal police, clean, trained, articulate and a citizenry willing to collaborate with their police and this with a link with federal forces to have protection. It is the way to recover peace,” said Father Atilano González.
Among the cases they have documented, eight municipalities in the country stand out: Escobedo, San Pedro and San Nicolás, in Nuevo León; Chihuahua, Chihuahua; Saltillo, Coahuila; Nezahualcóyotl, state of Mexico, and Cherán and Tancítaro in Michoacán.
In an interview, he stressed that in no case have they detected that the presence of the Army keeps the crime rate down.
“There is no case in Mexico of a territory that, with the intervention of the Army, has reduced the crime rate and kept it low for 8 or 10 years. It has been because the Army intervened and then the business community, the churches, got involved to support security structures,” he stated.
He explained that for this reason they expect the participation of all sectors, from business, churches, universities, civil society, public and private schools, to local governments, for which they estimate an attendance of one thousand people in this second dialogue.
